topic Re: Reading data from file - issue in SAS Programming

Reading data from file - issue

soumyatejas — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 18:42:11 GMT

Problem:

Mismatch in field picked from file while reading in data.

Code:

FILENAME trans6'/folders/myfolders/transaction_date.txt';

data trans6;
infile trans6;
input @1 trans_date mmddyy10.
@12 id $6.
;
run;

proc print data=work.trans6;
run;

Output:

Log:

1 OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK;

56 FILENAME trans6'/folders/myfolders/transaction_date.txt';

58 data trans6;

59 infile trans6;

60 input @1 trans_date mmddyy10.

61 @12 id $6.

62 ;

63 run;

NOTE: The infile TRANS6 is:

Filename=/folders/myfolders/transaction_date.txt,

Owner Name=root,Group Name=vboxsf,

Access Permission=-rwxrwx---,

Last Modified=16Apr2017:14:32:11,

File Size (bytes)=50

NOTE: 3 records were read from the infile TRANS6.

The minimum record length was 12.

The maximum record length was 17.

NOTE: SAS went to a new line when INPUT statement reached past the end of a line.

NOTE: The data set WORK.TRANS6 has 2 observations and 2 variables.

NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):

real time 0.01 seconds

cpu time 0.01 seconds

65 proc print data=work.trans6;

66 run;

NOTE: There were 2 observations read from the data set WORK.TRANS6.

NOTE: PROCEDURE PRINT used (Total process time):

real time 0.02 seconds

cpu time 0.03 seconds

69 OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK;

Re: Reading data from file - issue

art297 — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 19:12:27 GMT

Add the truncover option to your infile statement. e.g.:

FILENAME trans6 '/folders/myfolders/transaction_date.txt';

data trans6;
  infile trans6 truncover;
  input @1 trans_date mmddyy10.
  @12 id $6.;
run;

Art, CEO, AnalystFinder.com

Re: Reading data from file - issue

soumyatejas — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 19:31:22 GMT

Thank you, it works fine now.

Re: Reading data from file - issue

Cynthia_sas — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 19:48:18 GMT

Hi:

When you read a file like this, SAS is telling you in the log, what is wrong with these lines:

The minimum record length was 12.

The maximum record length was 17.

And if you look at the file in Notepad,

you can see that indeed, the middle data line is only 12 bytes long. But with formatted input, such as you have used, when SAS gets to the second line and does not find the right number of bytes for ID (you told it $6), then you get the message:

NOTE: SAS went to a new line when INPUT statement reached past the end of a line.

Because the INPUT statement went to the next line to "satisfy" the need to read $6, as you instructed.

There are other ways to read this data file. The easiest is to switch to LIST input, as shown below, but you can stick with formatted input if you use $varying to read ID. Other options, like PAD and/or MISSOVER can help you here. In total, there are 4 ways shown in my examples, There are probably more ways.

cynthia

Re: Reading data from file - issue

Cynthia_sas — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 19:50:30 GMT

Good catch, Art! I completely spaced out on TRUNCOVER.
cynthia